Gilbert Adrian (1903–1959) became a costume designer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1928. He designed for more than 250 films, including classics such as The Wizard of Oz. In 1942, he opened his own fashion salon in Beverly Hills. Adrian: Hollywood and Beyond examines his innovative use of textiles as both a costume and a fashion designer. Drawing on a variety of techniques, Adrian built dynamic garments that not only celebrated fabric but made it integral to their design.

This exhibition explores Adrian’s work through two categories of technique: construction and textile design. Mitering was a favorite technique of Adrian’s and can be seen best in his suits. His use of whimsical prints made both his day and his evening wear stand out from the work of his contemporaries. In one extraordinary example — and the star of the exhibition — Adrian cleverly elevated a Wesley Simpson pr int of a Salvador Dalí illustration into a dazzling evening gown.

The first part of the exhibition serves as an introduction to these concepts. Five textiles, highlighting pr int techniques, have been paired with advertisements featuring finished gar ments. In addition, two suit jackets illustrate Adrian’s construction and tailoring skills. In the final section, nine garments showcase the combined methods and craftsmanship of a designer who was both an artist and an engineer, whether designing for a movie star or the American woman.

Adrian

Adrian Adolph Greenberg, who later took the name Gilbert Adrian, studied art and illustration at Parsons School of Applied Arts and Design in New York and Paris. Throughout his life, he continued to paint. In 1949, an exhibition of his work was displayed at the Knoedler Gallery in Manhattan.

Adrian sketching in his studio

Construction

Adrian believed that proper fit and clean construction were imperative, and used a myriad of complex techniques to construct sculptural, style-setting looks. Fellow costume designer Edith Head once remarked that she “often felt pangs of inadequacy” when she saw Adrian’s “perfectly engineered gowns.”

Adept at both draping and tailoring, Adrian under stood how best to use the inherent qualities of textiles, such as the flow of knit jersey and the strength of woven wool. He built architectural suits by manipulating stripes and checks through mitering, the joining of fabric at different angles in order to create subtle patterns. From a distance, his construction draws focus to the triangular silhouette with wide shoulders and narrow hips. Up close, asymmetrical tabs, buttons, pockets, and panels add interest “above the table” — a movie-making term that refers to the look from the waist up.

Adrian Suit Jacket

The construction of this jacket is surprisingly complex. The hip panel and pocket alone are comprised of six separate pieces. Adrian used details such as inset strips of bias-cut fabric to add interest to otherwise conservative garments. He strove for a balance that he called “controlled excitement.”

Detail of Adrian Suit Jacket

Patterning

Adrian often worked with Bianchini-Férier, a French textile manufacturer with a mill in New York. Adrian’s publicist, Eleanor Lambert, noted in collection reviews that Adrian designed many “brilliantly distinctive” prints.

Bianchini-Férier Textile Remnant

This sample illustrates an important phase of textile development used by mills such as Bianchini-Férier. The mills would share varying scales of print, printing techniques, and fabrics with designers such as Adrian, who would then choose the best material for the finished garment.

Tailoring

Tailoring is a garment construction technique in which a designer or tailor adjusts fabric on a mannequin using pins, stitches, and marks, trimming away the excess. The “toile,” or template of the design, is removed from the mannequin, laid flat, and traced onto paper. This is the pattern from which the final garment will be made. Tailoring is typically used to create suits and other structural garments.

Adrian Suit

Adrian cleverly cut and pieced this woven textile, mitering the stripes so that they meet at angles and emphasize the lines of the wearer’s body. Skirt suits like this one were an integral part of the mid-century woman’s daytime wardrobe. Adrian was lauded in Vogue for his “excellent” versions, which were “never melodramatic, never dull.”

Detail of Adrian Suit

Mitering

Mitering is a construction technique or fabric manipulation. Two pieces of fabric are joined diagonally, usually at a corner. This is a classic method of achieving a clean corner, but can be used creatively to manipulate the pattern of a textile. It is especially dramatic when striped textiles are used.

Adrian Day Dress

Adrian mitered the stripes of this printed rayon textile to create a graphic chevron effect. In designing the dress, he most likely considered the pattern of the fabric and the construction of the garment simultaneously.

Textile Design

Textile design is any image, color, texture, or design that appears on the surface of a textile. Designs can be printed or incorporated into the weaving process, such as stripes, plaid, or ikat. Surface design can be applied to the finished fabric through many techniques, including dyeing, printing, beading, embroidery, or appliqué.

Textile Conversion

Adrian learned during his tenure in Hollywood that costume construction is magnified on the big screen, thus he insisted on using only the finest materials and the most skilled artisans. He also took advantage of the cinematic impact of textile prints and patterns, as graphic stripes and plaids stand out among the mass of grey in black-and-white films. He used this to great effect in The Wizard of Oz — Dorothy’s gingham dress is as spirited in Kansas as it is in Technicolor Oz.

This under standing of textiles continued to inform his couture and ready-to-wear creations when he began designing his own line. He employed imaginative prints by textile firms such as Wesley Simpson and Bianchini-Férier and often took a playful approach to fashion design. Adrian expressed what his publicist Eleanor Lambert called his “droll humor” through trompe-l’oeil, asymmetrical effects, and amusing prints. Early in his creative process, he would envision his garments fully-realized, from fabric to silhouette. As a result, pattern scale and placement were carefully calibrated.

Adrian Evening dress

This gown showcases Adrian’s design acumen while allowing the textile to be the highlight. He built on Dalí’s Surrealist motif by using drapery and appliqué to create a shadow effect on the wearer’s shoulder. A harmonious blend of print and construction, the gown demonstrates Adrian’s ability to expand a fabric’s surface beyond print.

Detail of Adrian Evening Dress

Advertisement

These advertisements from Vogue promote Wesley Simpson and Enka Rayon and identify the participants involved in the production of the gowns. Enka produced the base fabric, Salvador Dalí provided illustrations, Wesley Simpson converted the drawings into pattern repeats and screen-printed them onto the rayon, and Adrian created the evening gowns shown in the magazine.

Piecing

Piecing is a form of construction that involves combining different pieces of material together into a larger composition. The components can be from the same or contrasting material and are carefully measured and cut to fit into the final design.

Adrian Evening Ensemble

Adrian developed an ingenious method of creating surface design through the manipulation of solid textiles. For this ensemble, he pieced together organic shapes as if they were a jigsaw puzzle in order to create the illusion of a printed textile. Inspired by art, Adrian regularly gave his gowns titles such as “Shades of Picasso.”

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Draping

Garments are typically created through draping, flat patterning, or tailoring. Draping — sometimes referred to as “soft construction” — involves working with plain material directly on a dress form or model, using pins to fold and shape the garment. Once the desired silhouette is complete, the fabric is removed to make a paper pattern.

Adrian Costume

Adrian manipulated silk jersey to accentuate the body in this costume design from his final film, Lovely to Look At. He created the hood by pleating the textile on the bodice, allowing it to expand as it draped the wearer’s head and contract around the wrist, to form the semblance of a sleeve.